Boats & boaters: On the water
Scout Boats heads offshore
By Rob Carli
Scout Boats
Summerville manufacturer pushes even deeper with new 350 Abaco
Summerville-based Scout Boats is taking on the industry’s big boys with the launch of a new 35-foot recreational crossbreed vessel designed for luxury blue-water adventure.
“It’s an outboard-powered sportfishing yacht,” explained Steve Potts, owner and founder of Scout Boats.
Designed as a more compact and fuel-efficient alternative to the sportfishers that traditionally have dominated the world of offshore fishing, the 350 Abaco “feels more like a cruiser,” Potts said.
Following four years of covert development, the Abaco debuted at the Charleston Boat Show in January (bottom, right). The sleek 35-footer also made a big splash at the Miami International Boat Show one month later, where, according to Scout sales manager Alan Lang, visitors waited up to an hour for a 50-mph ride on the demo model.
The Abaco is powered by a pair of Yamaha’s new 350-hp outboards. Its 450-mile range and 85 square feet of fishing area combine to make the Abaco a tempting open-ocean alternative to classic sportfishing vessels. Designed to compete with the custom-built crowd, the Abaco doesn’t skimp on style points. Its cherry-veneer-lined cabin (bottom, left) comfortably sleeps five and contains all the amenities of a landlocked home, including a 26-inch flat-screen TV and coffeemaker.
“Basically, we take all the amenities of a big custom sportfisher and shrink it down to a 35-footer,” Lang said.
Potts and his team thoroughly researched their market rivals and built a number of innovations into the Abaco’s design.
One of these key features is an insulated “systems room” (bottom, middle) that allows easy access to major electronic components.
“As far as we know, we are the only ones doing that,” Potts said. “It’s clean, it’s dry and it keeps (the electronics) out of the weather. That’s very atypical for our competition.
“We know who the competitors are,” Potts said. “The challenge we feel we have more than met is to make it more yachtlike, and at a moderate price.”
By starting the Abaco at about $400,000, well below the cost of most new custom sportfishers, the Summerville manufacturer hopes to stiffen the competition among larger boat manufacturers.
Steve Potts Jr., Potts’ son and a 13-year Scout veteran, teamed up with world-renowned naval architect Michael Peters to create Scout’s biggest model.
“This is the first boat we’ve had anyone help us out with,” Steve Potts Jr. said.
Peters, whose portfolio ranges from designing a Hewes flats boat to a Viking yacht, was impressed with Scout’s tenacity when it came to the Abaco. “I was very surprised with the boat, the overall finish of the boat,” said Peters. “We did not expect them to up the ante the way they did.
“We do the Cabos and we work for Viking,” Peters added. “Scout’s fitting very nicely in line there. ... For the size range they’re in, it struck me as a very nice boat.”
Peters was brought in by Scout primarily for his “step hull” design experience, which eliminates drag and improves fuel efficiency.
Fuel effeciency weighs heavily on all Scout designs, and the manufacturer prides itself on helping anglers make the most of their fuel dollars.
“We created ads about our hulls’ fuel efficiency versus other hulls,” Potts said. “That was when gas cost $1.50.”
In addition to the easy-planing Abaco, Scout also recently launched what it touts as the industry’s first gasoline-electric hybrid vessel. The 141/2-foot hybrid model (about $17,000) comes equipped with a traditional 20-hp outboard motor, plus two electric motors.
The vessel’s quiet battery-powered units can run up to 8 mph for eight hours between charges, though the boat can travel about three times faster when the gas-powered engine is cranking.
Scout quietly unveiled the hybrid to its dealers at an annual meeting in September 2007, then made a big splash early this year at a big boat show in New York.
“The hybrid is not a gimmick,” Steve Potts said. “We’re committed. We sell them to people on lakes, and in Canada.”
According to sales manager Lang, Scout plans to build 25 hybrids and 350 Abacos this year. Both will be sold at the newly opened Sportsman’s Island on Daniel Island, which Scout joined Hanckel Marine to build.
Scout’s greatest ambitions loom on the horizon, according to Potts.
“We think the next thing we’re going to break into is an electric boat that can plane off.”
Beware the rocks : Nothing will ruin your day quite like a run-in with Charleston’s jetties
The Post and Courier
At high tide, much of Charleston Harbor's jetties can be hidden by water, creating a dangerous hazard to boaters unfamiliar with the area.
BY Schuyler Kropf
Capt. Steve Little cringes when he recalls the creaking noise a pleasure boat makes once it’s hung up on the Charleston Harbor jetties.
It’s a cacophony of sounds, highlighted by the crackling din of ripping fiberglass.
“If a boat rolls, you’ll have metal bending and T-tops breaking,” he said.
With Charleston’s boating season back in full swing, Little speaks with authority about the frequency of accidents that occur along the harbor jetties, the submerged mound of stones that defines the harbor mouth but can act like a magnet for boat wrecks.
As a captain with Tow Boat US, Little pulled three pleasure boats ranging from 20 feet long to almost 50 feet long off the jetty’s jagged rocks in the first few months of 2008.
“A lot of people go out there and buy a nice boat and don’t know the area and end up getting in trouble,” Little said. “Most of it is not knowing the area and not paying attention.”
Little’s comments came shortly before showing off the wrecked underside of a 48-foot Sea Ray. Its owner faced up to $60,000 in repairs after the boat struck one of the jetties this spring.
Little’s competition in the towing business, Anthony Noury of SeaTow Charleston, also has horror stories to relate, such as a recent event in which an out-of-town boat got hung up.
Officials answered the vessel’s distress call by asking the captain to identify which side of the jetty — the north or south side — he’d hit.
There was a long pause from the boat’s radio, followed by the captain answering: “We didn’t know you even had jetties.”
The Charleston jetties took shape between 1882 and 1895 to manage the sandbars that periodically shifted up and down and side to side, snarling the harbor approaches.
Today, the north jetty measures nearly 3 miles long, while the south jetty is almost 4 miles long. Both are popular fishing sites.
But they are also hazards to the inexperienced, during a high tide or low one, in stormy seas, day or night. About five crashes a year get reported, the Coast Guard estimates, from boaters who run into them by mistake or slam against them uncontrolled after losing power.
“People just aren’t paying attention to the largest navigation hazard around,” Noury said.
Another factor is faulty charts or out-of-date computer data.
The jetties can also be deadly.
One of Charleston’s more tragic sea accidents was the 1997 wreck of the Morning Dew. The 35-foot sailboat crashed into the jetties on a stormy December night, killing Mike Cornett, 49, his two sons and their cousin.
The Coast Guard gets involved in an active rescue if a life is in danger or an environmental hazard occurs.
Otherwise, boat recoveries are farmed out to companies such as Noury’s or Little’s, with the vessel owners picking up the tab if they aren’t tow company subscribers.
Both men said that with the bulk of this year’s season yet to come, they are urging boaters to be careful around the harbor entrance and generally on the water. Rescues can be expensive and hazardous for everyone involved, they said.
Little gave this advice: “Just because it looks like wide-open water doesn’t mean there’s still a lot of water underneath you.”
Schuyler Kropf is a reporter for The Post and Courier. Contact him at skropf @postandcourier.com or 937-5551.
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